© 2024 SDPB Radio
Donate
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Independent Lens

Beyond Utopia

Season 25 Episode 7 | 1hr 51m 55s

They grew up believing their land was paradise. Now, they risk everything in escaping it. In an unforgettable documentary, follow families on a treacherous journey to defect from their homeland of North Korea, as the threat of severe punishment and possible execution looms over their passage, revealing a world many have never seen.

Aired: 01/08/24 | Expires: 02/06/24
Extras
Watch • 1:00
Independent Lens
Winter 2024 Sneak Peek
Watch Independent Lens on the PBS app.
Preview: S26 E20 | 1:00
Watch • 0:30
Independent Lens
Dallas, 2019 | Trailer
Interwoven stories cover life in the city of Dallas, Texas.
Preview: S26 E3 | 0:30
Watch • 0:30
Independent Lens
Trailer | Without Arrows
After 13 years, a Lakota man returns to his reservation to reconnect with his family and culture.
Preview: S26 E9 | 0:30
Watch • 0:30
Independent Lens
Trailer | Minted
Digital artists gaining global fame after embracing NFTs face a reckoning as it crashes around them.
Preview: S26 E8 | 0:30
Watch • 24:13
Independent Lens
Ready For Your Headliner? | United States of Comedy, Ep 5
Iranian American comic Sohrab Forouzesh gets his big break: headlining Chicago's legendary Zanies.
Special: 24:13
Watch • 0:30
Independent Lens
Trailer | Make Peace or Die: Honor the Fallen
A veteran uses hand-carved battlefield crosses to reconnect with families of fallen, fellow Marines.
Preview: S26 E2 | 0:30
Watch • 0:30
Independent Lens
Trailer | Wild Hogs and Saffron
A wild hog hunt in the Ozarks leads to an unexpectedly vulnerable dialogue.
Preview: 0:30
Watch • 1:00
Independent Lens
Fall 2024 Sneak Peek
Watch Independent Lens on the PBS app.
Preview: S26 E20 | 1:00
Watch • 0:30
Independent Lens
Trailer | One Person, One Vote?
Unravel the complexities of the Electoral College through four 2020 presidential electors.
Preview: S26 E1 | 0:30
Watch • 5:30
Independent Lens
Who Can Become American? | The History of White People in America, Episode 6
Catchy, musical short chronicles the 175-year-long arbitrary system of race in America.
Special: 5:30
Latest Episodes
All
  • All
  • Independent Lens Season 26
  • Independent Lens Season 25
  • Independent Lens Season 24
  • Independent Lens Season 23
  • Independent Lens Season 22
  • Independent Lens Season 21
  • Independent Lens Season 20
  • Independent Lens Season 19
  • Independent Lens Season 18
  • Independent Lens Season 17
  • Independent Lens Season 16
  • Independent Lens Season 15
  • Independent Lens Season 14
  • Independent Lens Season 13
  • Independent Lens Season 12
  • Independent Lens Season 11
  • Independent Lens Season 10
  • Independent Lens Season 9
  • Independent Lens Season 8
  • Independent Lens Season 7
  • Independent Lens Season 6
  • Independent Lens Season 5
  • Independent Lens Season 4
  • Independent Lens Season 1
Independent Lens
Without Arrows
A champion grass dancer returns home after 13 years to reconnect with his Indigenous culture.
Episode: S26 E9
Independent Lens
Minted
The rise and fall of the NFT phenomenon that transformed the art world.
Episode: S26 E8
Independent Lens
Dallas, 2019 | Episode 1
Episode 1 of Dallas, 2019 shows workers navigating a city in crisis after a tornado.
Episode: S26 E3
Watch • 1:25:41
Independent Lens
Make Peace or Die: Honor the Fallen
A veteran uses hand-carved battlefield crosses to reconnect with families of fallen, fellow Marines.
Episode: S26 E2 | 1:25:41
Watch • 1:16:37
Independent Lens
One Person, One Vote?
Unravel the complexities of the Electoral College through four 2020 presidential electors.
Episode: S26 E1 | 1:16:37
Independent Lens
Season Extras
Sizzles and such
Episode: S26 E20
Watch • 1:25:17
Independent Lens
The Tuba Thieves
The central mystery of this unconventional documentary is the nature of sound itself.
Episode: S25 E17 | 1:25:17
Watch • 1:24:52
Independent Lens
Space: The Longest Goodbye
NASA psychologists prepare astronauts for the extreme isolation of a Mars mission.
Episode: S25 E16 | 1:24:52
Watch • 1:18:04
Independent Lens
One With the Whale
For Native Alaskans living on a tiny Bering Sea island, if you don’t hunt, you die.
Episode: S25 E15 | 1:18:04
Watch • 54:41
Independent Lens
Matter of Mind: My Parkinson’s
Three people navigate their lives with determination in the face of Parkinson’s disease.
Episode: S25 E14 | 54:41